Andy Rubin, VP of Engineering at Google, was on Dive Into Mobile talking about Android as well as the competition. During the interview, Walt Mossberg began explaining how RIM has done a great job of building an “iconic” product but goes on to say that they’re fading in light of the competition, mostly due to the fact that they’re working with a legacy product.
Rubin’s response to Mossberg was to point out the similarities in the story of the RAZR. The Motorola RAZR was an iconic product but it eventually faded away. Motorola’s response was to switch to Android, but Rubin isn’t suggesting that’s the solution for RIM. The solution is to go through design cycles because a legacy product doesn’t allow you to keep up with the fast pace of the competition. Rubin then points to the acquisitions RIM has made with QNX, TAT and DataViz, and says they’re doing all the right things to fill in the pieces and keep up with the hyper competitive market.
Now that App World is accepting BlackBerry PlayBook apps, many are wondering what people are going to submit. We’ve taken the time to put together a roundup of all the PlayBook apps we’ve seen so far. There are many developers out there that are working on apps that we may not have spotted yet, so be sure to comment and let us know about them and we can add them to the list. So far there are a lot of cool apps and the PlayBook is shaping up to be a well-rounded device with both enterprise and consumer applications. Read after the jump for the full list. Continue reading ‘Roundup of BlackBerry PlayBook Apps We Have Seen So Far’
The full feature set of Google Maps API v3 is now available to BlackBerry 6 and BlackBerry Torch users. The Google Maps API allows you to embed the Google Maps field into your website whether it’s on desktop or mobile. Being cross platform has always been a central focus of the Maps API and it’s good to see them finally with BlackBerry 6 support.
RIM’s social media team printed out shirts with sweet tweets. This tweet comes from a #teamblackberry fan @70s_Kid.
Michelle Kostya, Program Manager, Social Media Support at Research In Motion, was the guest speaker at a regular event put on by Thornley Fallis, called Third Tuesday here in Ottawa. Here is a description of last night’s event:
As RIM evolves its platform, it’s also using social media to reach out to its users and engage with them in online community and social media. Michelle Kostya is one of the people charting out RIM’s path in social media. And she’s our next speaker at Third Tuesday.
The history behind social media at RIM is also a story of how the company has changed over the years in terms of customer base, as it shifts from purely enterprise to also supporting consumer smartphones. In the beginning, RIM had solely an enterprise market to cater to and customer service was focused on serving this market in a 1 to 1 relationship. Marketing for enterprise was more traditional and it was difficult to collect feedback on how the marketing message was being received. In the last few years, the market has shifted to consumer smartphones and reaching this audience required a new set of tools, because enterprise style customer support and marketing isn’t as effective. Continue reading ‘Michelle Kostya on RIM’s Approach to Social Media and Its Evolution’
Now that RIM has posted the terms and conditions that will earn you a free BlackBerry PlayBook, it’s interesting to see what will NOT earn you a free device. It seems RIM is making the contest such that you have to actually invest some decent development time in the app, and they don’t want anyone flooding the system with quick apps to make a grab for the free PlayBook. The app you submit to App World has to actually provide some real value to the end user, and can’t include any of the following: Continue reading ‘What Apps Will Not Earn You a Free BlackBerry PlayBook?’
It’s official, RIM is now accepting PlayBook app submissions for BlackBerry App World. If you remember, developers who submit a BlackBerry PlayBook app are supposed to get a free PlayBook and RIM has posted the guidelines that detail how you can get your free PlayBook. Basically, you need to follow all the proper guidelines of submitting an app to App World, with a few extra criteria on top. The offer ends February 1st, so make sure you get your PlayBook app in by then.
